Terry McAuliffe, Ken Cuccinelli in dead heat in Virginia

A Quinnipiac poll in Virginia finds Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli tied in the race for governor, though it’s clear many voters in the state haven’t started paying attention to the race yet.

McAuliffe and Cuccinelli each take 38 percent in the poll, released Wednesday morning, with 21 percent undecided. These numbers have tightened slightly since November, when a Quinnipiac poll gave McAuliffe a 4-point edge.

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While each candidate gets the vast majority of support from members of their own party — 87 percent of Republicans back Cuccinelli, and 83 percent of Democrats back McAuliffe — Cuccinelli has a slight advantage among independents. He takes 33 percent of independents, compared with 29 percent for McAuliffe and a full 34 percent undecided.

Cuccinelli has an advantage among men — 44 percent to 34 percent — but McAuliffe leads among women, 42 percent to 33 percent.

If Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling were to enter the race as an independent — which he said recently is a “50/50” possibility — McAuliffe would have a slight edge, but the race would still be close. In a three-way race, McAuliffe would take 34 percent of the vote, compared with 31 percent for Cuccinelli and 13 percent for Bolling. In that scenario, 21 percent of voters are still undecided.

Both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli have net positive favorability ratings in the poll, but a large portion of Virginia voters don’t know much about either candidate — leaving a lot of room for them to be defined in the coming months.

Twenty-three percent of voters view McAuliffe favorably, compared with 16 percent who view him unfavorably — but a full 60 percent of voters say they haven’t heard enough about him. For Cuccinelli, 30 percent view him favorably and 25 percent view him unfavorably, but 44 percent say they don’t know enough about him.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,112 registered Virginia voters from Feb. 14-18, and has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.